Game Release Notes - December 12, 2017

12/12/2017 - December 12 Release Notes

Wintersday

Come join us in celebrating Wintersday—Toymaker Tixx has made his annual visit to Divinity's Reach to spread seasonal cheer and festivity! Complete daily achievements to earn fanciful holiday weapons new and old, save Wintersday by giving wrapped gifts to the orphans around Divinity's Reach, test your snow-throwing skills against other players in Snowball Mayhem, experience the joy of jumping in Winter Wonderland, defend against waves of toys in Toypocalypse, and help keep Tixx's airship, the Infinirarium, in order! You'll also see Wintersday gifts appearing all around Tyria.

Wintersday achievements have been split into three categories: "Wintersday Traditions" for repeatable achievements and annual achievements that can be completed once a year, "The Wondrous Workshop of Toymaker Tixx" for one-time festival achievements, and "Winter's Presence" for one-time achievements that give items for the Winter's Presence collection.

The Wintersday meta-achievement "A Season of Merriment" is earned by completing Wintersday daily achievements and can be repeated to collect even more gifts.

Race fever is spreading, and a new seasonal race event has been unveiled in Divinity's Reach! Speed through the streets on your favorite mount, or dash through the falling snow on foot to earn new annual and daily achievements. Festivalgoers who haven't earned an official mount license can speak with a race coordinator to temporarily rent a mount for a small fee.

A second entrance has been added to Toypocalypse to allow coordinated adventurers to form a group ahead of time for the activity. Toypocalypse has also had a number of bug fixes and updates in both the grouped and match-made versions:

Skritt mercenaries have been reduced in number from 6 to 4 and can now be found on either side of the airship.

Sword-wielding skritt mercenaries now have an additional skill and increased toughness.

Rifle-wielding skritt mercenaries now have an additional skill.

Visual tracking of scrap donations to skritt mercenaries has been added to allow players to see how close they are to being hired.

Fully upgraded defenses can now be partially repaired by interacting with them while carrying the appropriate bundle.

The Winter Wonderland jumping puzzle has been updated: Each of its three routes now presents jumpers with a different difficulty, ranging from the sedate and scenic Quaggan Route to the fast-paced Gingerbread Route. Adventurers will face colder temperatures and less-stable platforms on the harder routes, but they will find greater rewards waiting for them at the end of the climb! Several bugs and timing issues have also been addressed, making a safer experience for all participants.

New Wintersday-themed guild decorations have been added.

Wintersday decorations in Divinity's Reach have been updated. Toymaker Tixx assures citizens that the falling snow generated by the Infinirarium is completely safe.

Wintersday rewards have been streamlined to reduce inventory clutter and excessive inventory management. A new snowflake item has been introduced.

Snowflakes drop from Wintersday gifts and can be used to craft food and gear.

Snowflakes can be traded for Snow Diamonds, which are used for premium rewards.

All old snowflakes (tiny, delicate, glittering, unique, pristine, and flawless) can be double-clicked to convert them into the new snowflake.

World Polish

Fixed a bug in which Orphan Laine could send his letter to players who were already helping the orphans.

Removed the "Enter the item's name below to confirm before destroying" requirement from Orphan Laine's letter.

Fixed a bug in which Toymaker Tixx and Orphan Laine could send their letters to players twice during the Wintersday festival.

Updated the locations of some orphans, festival guides, and magic snow piles in Divinity's Reach to avoid nearby decorations.

Updated the icon for the Lunatic's Fashion achievement to match its Halloween category.

Added a small but tasty reward for successful test participants in the Proxemics Lab guild puzzle.

Living World

Corrected the icon used in the wardrobe entry for the Mini Branded Wyvern.

Kralkatite ore now offers the "Consume All" option when right-clicked.

General

Hylek Shadowleapers (all variants): Removed the passive skill that caused these creatures to evade ranged attacks. Lowered the recharge time of Retreating Shot from 8 seconds to 6 seconds.

Asura—Radiation Field: Poison duration has been adjusted from 2 stacks for 3 seconds to 1 stack for 6 seconds.

Fractals

Twilight Oasis

Increased the evade duration of the Enhanced Reflexes special action skill by 100%.

Reduced the radius of the wind pull for all tornadoes.

Increased the aftercast of High Priestess Amala's Wings of Rage attack by 0.5 seconds.

Profession Skills

Developer Note : In this extra balance update, we're looking to reduce the overall burst potential of damaging conditions throughout the game. We've done this by reducing the number of condition stacks inflicted while increasing the applied duration so that overall damage remains similar (with a bit of variance one way or the other). In addition, we've evaluated some of the vulnerability applications via the trait system and have reworked some of the guaranteed high up-time traits, pushing the vulnerability into more guaranteed—but limited—moments during combat. Finally, there have been a few profession-specific changes aimed at improving the general health of the game.

General

Barrier: The application of the barrier effect no longer resets the delay or decay of existing barriers. Barrier no longer decays over time; each application now disappears after 5 seconds, and all skills that grant barrier now give 15% more barrier.

Movement Skills: Camera facing no longer reduces the travel distance of these skills.

Interrupts and Defiance: Skills, traits, and sigils that have bonus effects when interrupting foes will now activate when used against foes with defiance bars as though they had been interrupted. Note that this does not require a creature's defiance bar to be active, just that the creature be using a skill when an interrupt effect is applied. To prevent abuse against bosses with long attack windups, a 3-second cooldown between activations of these skills has been added to skills without existing cooldowns. This cooldown is only applied when interrupting foes with defiance bars. This change affects the following game elements:

Warrior

Merciless Hammer: Confusion application only.

Sun and Moon Style: Quickness effect only.

Thief

Pressure Striking

Impacting Disruption

Ranger

Moment of Clarity

Elementalist

Polaric Leap

Mesmer

Illusion of Vulnerability

Furious Interruption

Power Block: Cooldown increase is not applied to defiant creatures.

Duelist's Discipline: Recharge effect only.

Chaotic Interruption

Sigils

Superior Sigil of Ruthlessness

Superior Sigil of Absorption

Superior Sigil of Draining

Superior Sigil of Rending

Superior Sigil of Severance

Elementalist

Earthen Vortex: Bleeding stacks have been adjusted from 3 stacks for 5 seconds to 2 stacks for 8 seconds.

Signet of Earth: Bleeding inflicted has been adjusted from 5 stacks for 7 seconds to 4 stacks for 9 seconds.

Stone Sheath: Bleeding has been adjusted from 3 stacks for 6 seconds to 2 stacks for 9 seconds.

Dragon's Tooth: Burning has been adjusted from 3 stacks for 3 seconds to 1 stack for 10 seconds.

Searing Slash: Burning has been adjusted from 2 stacks for 3 seconds to 1 stack for 6 seconds.

Cauterizing Strike: Burning has been adjusted from 2 stacks for 4 seconds to 1 stack for 8 seconds.

Cleansing Fire: Burning has been adjusted from 4 stacks for 3 seconds to 2 stacks for 6 seconds.

Twin Strike: Burning stacks have been reduced from 2 stacks for 4 seconds to 1 stack for 8 seconds.

Plasma Burst: Burning has been adjusted from 2 stacks for 3 seconds to 1 stack for 6 seconds.

Molten Burst: Burning has been adjusted from 3 stacks for 3 seconds to 1 stack for 8 seconds.

Arcane Fury: This trait has been replaced by Arcane Prowess , which grants might for 8 seconds when you swap attunements.

Electric Discharge: This trait now properly displays its damage in the combat log and inflicts vulnerability in addition to its previous strike effects.

Weak Spot: This trait has been replaced by Raging Storm, which grants fury for 2 seconds when you inflict critical strikes.

Lucid Singularity: Fixed a bug in which this trait failed to remove all instances of the listed conditions.

Engineer

Excessive Energy: This trait's functionality has been changed to now cause vigor on you to grant a 10% damage increase.

Blunderbuss: Reduced the bleeding stacks inflicted at each tier by 1. Increased the duration of bleeding from 5 seconds to 7 seconds at all tiers.

Retreating Grapple: Bleeding inflicted has been adjusted from 3 stacks for 6 seconds to 2 stacks for 10 seconds.

Throw Junk: Bleeding has been adjusted from 2 stacks for 3 seconds to 1 stack for 6 seconds.

Incendiary Ammo: Burning has been adjusted from 2 stacks for 3 seconds to 1 stack for 6 seconds.

Incendiary Powder: Burning duration has been adjusted from 2 stacks for 4 seconds to 1 stack for 8 seconds.

Rocket Kick: Burning duration has been adjusted from 3 stacks for 5 seconds to 2 stacks for 8 seconds.

Chemical Field: Poison stacks have been adjusted from 2 stacks for 4 seconds to 1 stack for 8 seconds.

Crystal Configuration: Zepyhr: Fixed a bug in which this trait failed to remove all instances of the listed conditions.

Heavy Armor Exploit: This trait has been renamed Sanguine Array and now grants might when you inflict bleeding.

High Caliber: Increased the range threshold of this trait from 240 to 300, and increased the chance to inflict critical strikes from 10% to 15% against foes within the range threshold.

No Scope: Increased the range threshold of this trait from 240 to 300. Reduced the internal cooldown of this trait from 10 seconds to 8 seconds. Fury now grants 150 ferocity.

Guardian

Chapter 4: Shining River: Increased base healing by 50% and heal scaling by 65%; this skill now heals over time in the affected area rather than all at once.

Core Cleave: This skill has had its animation reviewed and now completes slightly faster than before.

Bleeding Edge: This skill has had its animation reviewed and now completes slightly faster than before.

Searing Slash: This skill has had its animation reviewed and now completes slightly slower than before.

Symbol of Vengeance: Fixed a bug that prevented this skill from displaying the increased damage dealt when equipped with Symbolic Power.

Symbol of Energy: Fixed a bug that prevented this skill from displaying the increased damage dealt when equipped with Symbolic Power. Burning stacks inflicted have been adjusted from 2 stacks for 5 seconds to 1 stack for 12 seconds.

Judge's Intervention: Burning stacks inflicted have been adjusted from 3 stacks for 3 seconds to 1 stack for 8 seconds.

Merciful Intervention: This skill now revives allies in the target area for 20% of their downed health upon impact in addition to its healing component.

Purging Flames: Burning has been adjusted from 3 stacks for 5 seconds to 2 stacks for 8 seconds.

Signet of Judgment: Burning has been adjusted from 2 stacks for 3 seconds to 1 stack for 6 seconds.

Chapter 2: Igniting Burst: Burning has been adjusted from 4 stacks for 3 seconds to 2 stacks for 6 seconds.

Quickfire: Fixed a bug that allowed for multiple applications of Ashes of the Just while this trait should have been on cooldown.

Mesmer

Inspiring Distortion: This trait now grants 5 seconds of aegis instead of 1 second of distortion.

Chaos Vortex: This skill now attempts to face the selected target before firing when it's targeted on foes beside or behind the caster.

Ether Clone: Torment duration has been adjusted from 2 stacks for 5 seconds to 1 stack for 9 seconds.

Portal Exeunt: This skill now performs a range check before activating to prevent unusable portals from being created.

Arcane Thievery: In addition to its previous effects, successfully hitting a target now inflicts slow on the target for 4 seconds while granting quickness to the mesmer for the same duration.

Mantra of Recovery: Healing has been increased by 25% when fully charged.

Mantra of Pain: Increased might stacks from 8 to 12.

Mantra of Concentration: This skill now grants quickness for 5 seconds when fully charged, in addition to its previous effects.

Mantra of Resolve: This skill no longer grants resistance when fully charged. Instead, it now removes all conditions.

Tides of Time: Improved the consistency of the returning wave in situations where the outgoing wave impacts walls or terrain.

Imaginary Axes: Increased the confusion stacks applied by the player from 2 to 3. Increased the duration of confusion stacks applied by both the player and clones from 4 seconds to 5 seconds.

Desert Shroud: Torment stacks per hit have been adjusted from 2 stacks for 4 seconds to 1 stack for 10 seconds in PvE. The PvP and WvW version has been adjusted from 2 stacks for 2 seconds to 1 stack for 5 seconds.

Speed of Shadows: Fixed a bug in which this trait failed to remove all instances of the listed conditions.

Rending Claws: Increased damage by 13%.

Ghastly Claws: Increased damage by 11%.

Unholy Feast: Increased damage by 10%.

Dhuumfire: Fixed a bug that prevented this trait from inflicting burning when multiple scourge profession skills were activated at the same time.

Death's Embrace: Increased vulnerability stacks from 1 to 5 and increased duration from 5 seconds to 8 seconds. Increased enemy health threshold from 33% to 50%. Vulnerability can now only be applied to the same foe once every 10 seconds.

Unholy Fervor: This trait has been reworked and renamed Dread. It now causes fear you apply to also inflict 10 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds. It also causes attacks against foes inflicted with fear to deal 20% more damage.

Spiteful Talisman: This trait now reduces the recharge time of axe skills in addition to focus skills.

Ranger

Slash: Increased damage by 16%.

Slice: Increased damage by 45%.

Power Stab: Increased damage by 80%.

Maul: Reduced the duration of the Attack of Opportunity granted from 20 seconds to 10 seconds.

Hilt Bash: Increased damage by 42%.

Precision Swipe: Increased damage by 20%.

Whirling Defense: Increased damage by 15%.

Steady Focus: This trait has been renamed Farsighted, and its functionality has been changed. It now causes projectiles fired by ranger weapon skills to deal 5% bonus damage. This bonus is increased to 10% on foes beyond a range of 600.

Winter's Bite: Bleeding stacks have been adjusted from 3 stacks for 5 seconds to 2 stacks for 8 seconds.

Throw Torch: Burning stacks have been adjusted from 2 stacks for 5 seconds to 1 stack for 10 seconds.

Glyph of Alignment: Poison stacks have been adjusted from 3 stacks for 5 seconds to 2 stacks for 8 seconds.

Grace of the Land: Reduced the might granted by this trait from 4 stacks to 3 stacks.

Pack Alpha: Fixed a bug that prevented this trait from affecting new Path of Fire pet family skills.

Revenant

Energy Drain Skills: All skills that cancel energy-drain skills have been modified to be usable in midair.

Deathstrike: Energy cost has been reduced from 20 to 10. The cooldown has been reduced from 20 seconds to 15 seconds.

Impossible Odds: This skill and its associated Relinquish Power skill are now usable in midair.

Project Tranquility: Fixed a bug that prevented healing from the tablet from being reported in the combat log.

Scorchrazor: Burning has been adjusted from 2 stacks for 2 seconds to 1 stack for 4 seconds.

Manifest Toxin: Poison has been adjusted from 2 stacks for 6 seconds to 1 stack for 12 seconds.

Temporal Rift: Torment has been adjusted from 3 stacks for 8 seconds to 2 stacks for 12 seconds.

Forceful Displacement: Torment has been adjusted from 4 stacks for 6 seconds to 3 stacks for 8 seconds.

Venom Enhancement: Poison has been adjusted from 2 stacks for 5 seconds to 1 stack for 10 seconds.

Abyssal Chill: Torment duration has been adjusted from 2 stacks for 3 seconds to 1 stack for 6 seconds.

Maniacal Persistence: Torment duration has been adjusted from 4 stacks for 5 seconds to 2 stacks for 10 seconds.

Mutilate Defenses: This trait has been reworked and renamed Expose Defenses. This trait now causes your first attack when entering combat to inflict 5 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds. This skill refreshes whenever you use an elite skill.

Thief

Weakening Charge: This skill now moves the thief toward a selected target, but will not allow them to travel through the target.

Cursed Bullet: Increased base damage by 43%.

Spotter's Shot: Increased damage by 18% in PvE only.

Three Round Burst: Increased damage by 18% in PvE Only.

Death's Retreat: Reduced initiative cost of this skill from 5 to 4 in PvE only. Poison has been adjusted from 2 stacks for 4 seconds to 1 stack for 8 seconds.

Death's Judgment: Reduced initiative cost of this skill from 6 to 5 in PvE only.

Caltrops: Bleeding has been adjusted from 2 stacks for 5 seconds to 1 stack for 10 seconds.

The Ripper: Bleeding has been adjusted from 3 stacks for 7 seconds to 4 stacks for 10 seconds.

Pressure Striking: Torment duration has been adjusted from 3 stacks for 5 seconds to 2 stacks for 8 seconds.

Sundering Strikes: This trait has been renamed Sundering Shade. This trait now causes stealth attacks to inflict 5 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds with a 1-second cooldown.

Don't Stop: Fixed a bug in which this trait failed to remove all instances of the listed conditions.

Warrior

Reckless Dodge: The attack from this trait has been renamed Reckless Impact and is now shown as a separate skill in its tooltip. Reckless Impact now grants 1 stack of might for 5 seconds for each foe struck.

Stick and Move: This trait has been renamed Pinnacle of Strength, and its functionality has been changed. Might now grants you an additional 10 power per stack at level 80.

Magebane Tether: Fixed a text error with the effect associated with this trait that stated it applied vulnerability instead of revealed.

Break Enchantments: Fixed a bug in which the damage listed in the skill fact was lower than the actual damage of this skill.

Loss Aversion: Added a missing skill fact; this trait now indicates that it cannot make critical strikes. Damage increased by 300% in PvE only.

Body Blow: Bleeding has been adjusted from 2 stacks for 6 seconds to 1 stack for 12 seconds.

Blaze Breaker: Burning has been adjusted from 2 stacks for 3 seconds to 1 stack for 6 seconds.

Flames of War: Burning has been adjusted from 4 stacks for 3 seconds to 2 stacks for 6 seconds.

Burning Shackles: Burning has been adjusted from 3 stacks for 3 seconds to 1 stack for 10 seconds.

Rending Strikes: This trait has been renamed Sundering Burst, and its functionality has been changed. It now causes burst skills to inflict 5 stacks of vulnerability for 8 seconds upon hitting the target, and 5 additional stacks for 8 seconds if the attack is a critical hit. Burst skills that strike multiple times, such as Combustive Shot or Flurry, have a 5-second cooldown between vulnerability applications.

Structured Player vs. Player

The first four weapons of the Obsidian weapon set have been added to the League Vendor. The set has exotic and ascended tiers.

Mistforged Obsidian Weapon Boxes have replaced the Glorious Victor's Armor Box in monthly automated tournament rewards. Additional weapons will be added to this box as they become available.

Champion's Winter Crown has been added as the first-place reward for the monthly automated tournament. Champion's Laurels have been removed.

A Mist Capacitor has been added to the League Armor Vendor. Using it will emit a pulse of magic that resets one Mist Band, one Mist Pendant, and one Mist Talisman in your inventory. This will destroy any infusions that are equipped on those items.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE

New Items and Promotions

For a limited time, a new Cozy Wintersday Mounts Pack is available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 1,600 gems.

For a limited time, a new set of Glacial weapon skins is available from Black Lion Weapons Specialists for one Black Lion Claim Ticket. Black Lion Chest Keys are available in the Special category of the Gem Store for 125 gems each.

The Festive Hat returns to the Style category of the Gem Store for 150 gems.

The Royal Terrace Pass returns to the Utility category of the Gem Store for 700 gems—a discount of 30%.

For a limited time, the Wintersday weapon skins return to Black Lion Weapons Specialists for five Black Lion Claim Tickets. Black Lion Chest Keys are available in the Special category of the Gem Store for 125 gems each.

Improvements

The Black Lion Chest has been updated to the Glacial Wintersday Chest and can be previewed for a full list of its contents.

Significant revisions have been made to the regular Black Lion Chest items with updates to the Glacial Wintersday Chest. Highlights include the following updates:

More valuable common items, including dye kits, Upgrade Extractors, and new weapon- and armor-specific wardrobe unlocks.

Previously rare weapon skins are now uncommon drops.

Previously super rare weapon skins are now rare drops.

The new super rare Endless Upgrade Extractor Contract has been added.

The following regular updates are specific to the Glacial Wintersday Chest:

The Evon Gnashblade Wintersday Gift has been added as a new guaranteed item.

The new Svanir Gauntlets are available as an uncommon drop for the duration of the Glacial Wintersday Chest.

The new Mini Cozy Wintersday Mounts Pack is available as an uncommon drop for the duration of the Glacial Wintersday Chest.

The Wild Magic Backpack Glider Combo remains available as an uncommon drop for the duration of the Glacial Wintersday Chest.

The Candelabra Staff and the Infinirarium Glider return as uncommon drops for the duration of the Glacial Wintersday Chest.

The Frostforged Weapon Collection is available as an uncommon drop for the duration of the Glacial Wintersday Chest.

The Winter's Weapon Collection is available as a rare drop for the duration of the Glacial Wintersday Chest.

For a limited time, the Miniature categories for the Pact, Many Merry Minis, Maguuma Series 1, Living World Season 1, and Dragon Minions are available when using Black Lion Miniature Claim Tickets dropped from the Black Lion Chest. Keys can be found in the Special category of the Gem Store for 125 gems each.

Rapid Flow: Updated this trait to allow Shackling Wave to heal the revenant.

Warrior

Winds of Disenchantment: Fixed a bug that prevented this skill from being recognized as an elite skill for the purposes of some runes.

Items

An outfit version of all 14 of the endless tonics for town clothing has been added to the game for convenience. Each tonic may be exchanged for a matching wardrobe unlock at the Black Lion Trading Post in Lion's Arch.